Powder puff and method of making same



Feb. 20, 1940.- R. E. THOMPSON 2,190,894

POWDER PUFf AND METHOD OF MAKING SAME Original Filed Sept. 13, 1955 2Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTOR 7' TQRNEYS.

Feb. 20, 1940. RE. THOMPSON POWDER PUFF AND METHOD OF MAKING SAME 2Sheets-Sheet, 2

Original Filed Sept. 13, 1935 Patented Feb. 20, 1940 ra'rsu'r FFMEPOWDER PUFF AND METHOD OF MAKING SAME Richard E. Thompson, Brooklyn, N.Y.

Application September 13, 1935, Serial No. 40,483

Renewed June 15, l 1938 10 Claims.

This invention relates to powder pulls and method of making the same.

Powder puffs such as now commonly on the market are made by superposingtwo circular discs of suitable material, such as velours, with the napor pile sides or races of the discs in contact, that is, wrong side outin respect to their position in the finished article. The discs sosuperposed are then presented to a sewing machine and secured togetherby a line of stitches formedby such machine about a quarter of an inchinside of the peripheral edges of the discs. The line of stitches is notcontinued completely around the peripheral edges of the discs but isdiscontinued to leave a suflicient opening-through which the discs, orwhat is a bag at this stage of the operation, are turned right side out,that is, with the nap or pile sides or faces out. suitable filling, suchas cotton fiber, isthen introduced through the opening and distributedbetween the discs to constitute a filling of as uniform density andthickness as it may be possible to obtain by such procedure. The openingleft at the edges of the discs by discontinuing the machine-madestitches is then closed by l'li-Llld-f0i'llld stitches.

The general objects of the present invention are the provision of animproved powder puff and method of making thesame at minimum cost. Theseand other objects and advantages realized by the invention will bereadily understood by reference to the accompanying drawingsillustrativethereof and from the detailed description which follows.

In said drawings- Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a powder puff of thepresent invention;

Fig. i" a cross-sectional view showing the first sta e of 3 is a similarview of the next stage of said method;

Fig. a is a similar view of the final stage of said method;

5 is a top plan view of the apparatus of the invention;

Fig. 6 is a side elevation of Fig. 5, partly in vertical section;

Fig. '7 is a vertical section on line 'l-l of Fig.

5; and

Figs. 8 and 9 are detail sectional views on lines il--8 and 9-llrespectively of Fig. 5.

Referring to Figs. 5 to 9, Ell is a stationary circular cupdilze supportincluding in its con- 55-. struction an upstanding peripheral flange 2tthe method of producing the pull which is broken away or omitted betweenthe points Ziand 23 to provide space for a part of the apparatuspresently described. The bottom of said support has circular recess inwhich a circular plate 25 is rotatable by means of a vertical shaft 26to the upper end of which said plate 2'5 is secured. 2? is a circulartop plate having a recess 28 at one side (Fig. 5) and secured to thelower end of an upper vertical shaft 28 by which said plate is rotated.A stationary ring it engages in a groove Etl around the periphery ofplate A number of pins 3| (only one of which is shown in Fig. 6) arefixed to and distributed over the bottom surface of plate 27 and havedownwardly projecting sharp points.

A horizontal tubular stationary bearing 32, open at both ends, fitsagainst and is secured to the periphery of support Eli and has thereon,preferably as an integral part thereof, a hori- Zontal tapered finger ortongue 33 positioned in the space between the points 22 and 23 of flange2!. Finger 33 projects in the direction of rotation (indicated by thearrow on Fig. 5) of the plates 2a and ii and their shafts 26 and 28re-'spectively. Tongue 33 has a concave inner face, as clearly shown. 34'is a pusher supported by and reciprocated in bearing 32 by suitablemeans not shown.

35 is a fabric penetrating vertically reciprocating thread-carryingneedle, the path of travel of which is close to and just back of thepoint of finger 33, as shown in Fig. 5 and by dot-and-dash line in Fig.9. 36 is a thread-carrying looper which cooperates with the needle, in amanner well known in respect to machines for forming overedge orovercast stitches, that is, stitches including thread which is carriedone or more times around the edge of the fabric at each stitch. Themeans for imparting movements to theneedlc 35 and the looper as is notshown, but may be of a character well known in overseaming machines suchas are on the market. The shaft 26 and its plate 2 and the shaft 28 andits plate 27, with materials (such as described hereinafter) to beformed into a pad interposed between the plates 25 and 2.. andpenetrated by the pins 3! to insure rotation with the plates betweenwhich said materials are clamped, are rotated intermittently (in thedirection of the arrow shown in Fig. 5) or step-by-step, orstitch-by-stitch, by suitable means of well known character but notshown in the drawings. Such intermittent feed movements take place whilethe needle is up and out of the materials for forming the pad and thelooper is in corresponding position. In this manner the peripheral edgesof the materials of which the pad is to be constituted are: fed to andby the needle and stitches are formed therein.

In the method of producing powder puffs according to the presentinvention and as illustrated in the drawings, two circular discs 40 andll of suitable fabric, such as velours, are brought together with aninterposed circular body of fiber 42 (such as cotton fiber) and with theright sides of the fabric discs (that is, the pile or nap sides) out. Asshown in Fig. 2, the fabric discs and the cotton filling are all of thesame diameter, which is approximately the diameter of the finished padmade therefrom. The filling is preferably made from cotton fiber insheet form and of approximately uniform thickness and density. Thefabric discs and the circular cotton filling may be formed separatelyand then assembled in the relationship to each other shown in Fig. 2, orthey may be stamped or cut in one operation from previously superposedsheets of fabric and interposed cotton filling. The outline or shape ofthe fabric discs or pieces, such as 40 and M, as well as the cottonfiller 42, may be other than circular if desired.

The assembled fabric discs and cotton filling of Fig. 2 are next placedand clamped between the rotatable plates 24 and 27, as shown in Fig. 6.As said plates, and with them the fabric and cotton discs, are rotatedintermittently, the peripheral edges of said discs are carriedstep-by-step past the inner open end of the tubular bearing 32, thetongue 33 and the needle 35. The pusher St is so actuated that duringeach period of rest between feed movements it is moved forward to theapproximate position shown in dotted lines in Fig. 7 and then retractedto the approximate position shown in full lines in said figure. By suchmovement the pusher engages and. crowds the fibrous or cotton fillinginward at its peripheral edge sufiiciently to facilitate the turning orbending of the peripheral edges of the fabric discs inward toward eachother in the manner next described. As the edges of the fabric andcotton filling engage and slide past the inner concave surface of thetongue 33, which concavity gradually increases toward the free end ofthe tongue, said concave surface acts upon the peripheral edges of thefabric discs to gradually turn or bend them toward each other to theapproximate position shown in the drawings. In other words, the edgeportions of the fabric discs are turned into a plane approximately atright angles to the plane of the main body of each disc and the twoedges are preferably brought into approximate abutment by the time theyreach the needle. The needle then passes its thread 43 through saidedges of the fabric discs and the looper passes the looper thread l4back and forth across the tongue or finger 33 and into positions forinterlocking engagement with the needle thread where the latter isprojected through and below the lower fabric disc 41 and then with theneedle thread above the upper fabric disc Ml, and

so on.

The carrying of the looper thread back and forth across the tongue 33,and the presence of said tongue at a time when the threads and stitchesare set, prevents the formation of stitches of undesirable tightnesssuch as to mar the ap pearance of the seam or be otherwiseobjectionable. The feeding of the materials past the finger 33 causesthe looper threads to slide along and off the free end of said finger,which also serves the usual function of a chaining-off finger.

Some of the advantages realized by the present invention are as follows:

(at) There is a saving of the considerable quantity of relativelyexpensive fabric (such as velours) that is left beyond the line ofstitches and then turned to the inside in machine-made powder puffs asnow commonly manufactured. It is the practice to leave as much as onequarter of an inch margin beyond the line of stitches,

which means one-half inch in the diameter of the pads. The presentinvention eliminates any such margin with a considerable saving in theamount of relatively expensive fabric required.

(b) The present invention eliminates the step of turning puffs rightside out through an opening provided for that purpose, which is a stepin the production of puffs as now commonly manufactured.

(c) The present invention dispenses with the operation of inserting thefibrous filling (such as cotton) through said opening after the puff isturned right side out and of distributing said filling Within the pad.

(d) The present invention avoids and saves any operation. of hand sewingto close said opening. This hand sewing, even when expertly done, doesnot preserve the true circular outline, in other Words, results in anirregular patchy outline which mars the appearance of the finishedarticle.

The invention relates particularly to powder puffs, but that term is tobe understood as embracing any other articles to the production of whichthe invention is applicable.

What is claimed as new is:

1. A powder puif including in its construction two-discs or pieces ofsuitable fabric and of similar outline, each disc along its border beingturned or bent out of the plane of its main body and toward the otherdisc and the outer edges of the two discs being in contact with eachother; and

stitches passing through said outer edges and securing the fabric discstogether.

2. A powder puff including in its construction two discs or pieces ofsuitable fabric and of similar outline, each disc along its border beingturned or bent out ofthe plane of its main body and toward the otherdisc and the outer edges of the two discs being in approximate abutmentwith each other; and stitches passing through said outer edges andsecuring the fabric discs together.

3. A powder puff including in its construction two discs or pieces ofsuitable fabric and of similar outline, each disc along its border beingturned or bent out of the plane of its main body and toward the otherdisc and the outer edges of the two discs being in contact with eachother; and machine-made stitches passing through said outer edges andconstituting a seam extending the length of said edges.

4. A powder puff including in its construction two discs or pieces ofsuitable fabric and of similar outline, each disc along its border beingturned or bent out of the plane of its main body and toward the otherdisc and the outer edges of the two discs being in contact with eachother; and overedge stitches including thread passing through said outeredges at each stitch and thread extending across the line of contact ofsaid edges one or more times. at each stitch and said stitchesconstituting a seam extending the length of said edges and securing thefabric discs together.

5. A powder puff including in its construction two discs or pieces ofsuitable fabric and of similar outline, each disc along its border beingturned or bent out of the plane of its main body and toward the other,disc and the outer edges of the two discs being in contact with eachother; and machine-made overedge stitches including thread passingthrough said outer edges at each stitch and thread extending across theline of contactv toward the other disc and the outer edges of the whichsaid filling material is interposed, each of said discs along its borderbeing turned or bent out of the plane of itsrnain body toward the otherdisc and the outer edges of the two discs being in contact with eachother; and machinemade stitches passing through said outer edges andconstituting a seam, extending approximately the length of said edgesand securing the fabric discs together with said filling material interposed.

8. A powder puff including in its construction a suitablefillingmaterial, two discs or pieces of suitable fabric and of similar outlinebetween which said filling material is interposed, each of and overedgestitches including together.

said discs along its border being turned or bent out of the plane of itsmain body toward the otherdisc and the outer edges of the two discsbeing in approximate abutment with each other, and machine-made overedgestitches including thread passing through said outer edges at eachstitch. and thread extending across the line of abutment of said edgesone or more times at each stitch and said stitches constituting a seamextending the length of said edges and securing the fabric discstogether with said filling material interposed. r

9. The method of making powder puffs including the steps of bringingtogether two discs or pieces of suitablefabric and of similar outline;

then turning or bending each disc along its border out of the plane ofits main body toward the other disc and bringing the outer edges. of thetwo discs into contact with each other; and then forming stitchespassing through said outer edges, said stitches being continued toconstitute a seam extending the length of said edges and securing thefabric discs together. i

10. The method of making powder puffs including the steps of bringingtogether two discs or pieces of suitable fabric and of similar outline;then turning or bending each disc along its borderout of the plane ofitsmain body toward the other disc and bringing the outer edges of the'twodiscs into approximate abutment with each other; and then applyingmachine-made overedge stitches including thread passing through saidabutting edges at each stitch and thread extending across the line ofabutment one or mere times at each stitch, said stitches being continuedto constitute a seam extending the length of said edges and securing thefabric discs RICHARD E. THOMPSON.

